How do you work?

When I read the tutorials and saw all the "edit this php file", "edit the themes/your_theme/templates/page.ss" file, etc. I expected to be able to do all this in the CMS. ow that I'm all installed and ready to go, none of it is accessible. (I'm spoiled by Mac software and having worked at Apple years ago).

So, I assume you all run several apps at once, like an FTP client, a couple of editors for html and such, and the CMS. My question is, what is you workflow or actual working setup? It would be nice if this were spelled out SOMEWHERE on the Silverstripe site.

BTW, I'm on OSX 5.5 with latest FF and inserted images never appear in draft or published and my JPEGs won't appear as images in the list on the right. Very frustrating so far. Guess I expected more of a drag-n-drop like Freeway but with CM. I need a good looking professional store when I'm done. May have to hire someone not so long in the tooth.

Addendum: You may wonder why I thought I could do all the editing in the CMS. Watching the 8 minute video I get the strong impression I will build my site with the CMS. Then in the comments after the tutorial there is a discussion about the tutorial being complicated and old school with the direct editing of the PHP files and whether this is good or bad, which implied there was an easier alternative in the CMS. Is there?

No there is not. All code must be edited outside the CMS in a text editor/dev enviroment. The theory behind ss is that the developer does the devoloping/site building by editing the scource files and the site administrator creates and edits the sites content using the CMS UI. This way there is no confusion or mistaken role exchange.

Personally I think this is by far the best way of doing it and results in a simple user friendly CMS that clients and developers can both use (and love) independently.

In terms of working practice I use Aptana as my development enviroment which has an inbuilt FTP among other great features.
I start by making a static page using just HTML and CSS. Once Im happy with that I turn it into a ss template which then forms my Page.ss and the rest of my theme . From there I start making all my other pages and code files.
Honestly I can't think of a more enjoyable way to develop websites than using SS in this way and the end result is something that impresses every time.

If you find it daunting developing sites like this just persevere because in the end it becomes a real joy and allows you to create dynamic complex sites in an unbelievably short time :)

Basically, this clearly seperates the layers of your site. The developer creates the model/controllers (ie, the php files), the designer creates the template (.ss) files and the website admin uses the CMS to manage the site.

Try the tutorials and you'll quickly get an idea of how these things all fit together.

It is not so much a problem with the concepts as a problem getting anything to work. I can upload images and I can insert them and they will show in the ?main? window -- for a while. They will not show in draft or published. Safari knows there is space where they should go but firefox does not. http://validator.w3.org/ says there are errors in the home page.

Anyone care to look at the source for www.andahammer.com and guess why the images won't show up?

Also, why all the references in the HTML to the tutorial folder? I'm using a different theme and never mention the tutorials. Don't tell me Brightside1 is a broken theme?

After a little more work and looking at Hamish's directions for adding his theme, is there supposed to be _config.php file in the root? Where can I set the theme I want to use? I didn't change anything except. I thought it just looked in the Themes directory. This could explain a few things.

I had not seen that the file I wanted was in the mysite folder. However, I also found that unless you have already "run" the setup by accessing your home page once (with the default theme - no choice) there is no _config.php in the mysite folder to change.

Since I trashed the whole thing and reloaded, I could not find the file because it didn't exist yet. Thus, I was searching about and looking at the various _config.php files scattered liberally among the other folders.

Anyway, all working now with Brightside1 as I try to figure out where various resources are hidden.